Anjali Damania quits AAP over horse-trading reports

For the second time in 10 months, senior AAP leader in Maharashtra and anti-corruption activist Anjali Damania quit the party on Wednesday on a note of disgust amidst a fresh crisis which has gripped the Aam Aadmi Party.

Pic Courtesy: www.daily.bhaskar.com

Her resignation, the second after a similar move in June last year, was ostensibly prompted by reports of a sting operation that alleged Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tried to poach Congress legislators to form the government last year.

“I quit… I have not come into AAP for this nonsense,” she said in a surprise tweet on Wednesday afternoon.

In a reference to Kejriwal, whom she considered her mentor and idol, Damania said: “I believed him. I backed Arvind for principles not horse-trading.”

In a series of tweets, she said: “Aap is not a political party. It was a ray of hope for this country. Thousands of vols (volunteers) slogged for it. Just no one can play with the siddhant (principles).”

Referring to Kejriwal and party leader Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, she wrote: “Aap will only work on Siddhant. Just enough of nonsense. Arvind, PB & YY should beg apology to the karyakarta in next 48 hrs for their acts.”

“I demand inquiry in 48 hrs into all these allegations. Vols have given their sweat & blood. It is not for the party… It is for the country.”

Last year, she and some other office-bearers from Maharashtra had quit following the AAP’s no-show in the Lok Sabha elections in the state.

The revelation of ‘horse-trading’ was made by former AAP legislator from Rohini Rajesh Garg who alleged that Kejriwal had discussed the issue of wooing Congress legislators in the national capital to prop up the first AAP government early last year.

Garg also released the audio clip of the sting operation of a purported telephonic conversation he had with Kejriwal as evidence to back his allegations.

Damania’s resignation came barely a week after a party colleague Mayank Gandhi went public about the deliberations of the AAP national executive meeting and then claimed that he was being targeted by certain leaders in the capital. IANS